A Month in the Life

[Drum roll please...]
Today Pastor Harold Linder held a ministry team meeting at Heavenview United Pentecostal Church to review the church's vision and commitment to the "Seving Our Generation" campaign.


He reiterated the three parts of his vision for the church; Fulfilling our Commission (Supporting global missions), Freeing Our Community (more on this later) and Financing Our Construction (Financial support for the new building to replace the old church facility that was lost to a fire last year).

He gave a well deserved congratulations to the leaders and members of Heavenview for their great offering to Foreign Missions of over $60,000.00 which made Heavenview 20th in the nation for per capita giving. He also officially announced to the local ministry team his appointment to the FMD board and our continued commitment to global missions even during our building program.

As part of the second leg of the mission statement, Pastor Linder made official what he and I have been praying and working towards for the past 9 months. I accepted publicly the position of Community Pastor of Heavenview UPC to build a set of programs, ministries and facilities to fulfill the "Freeing Our Community" vision God gave Pastor Linder over a year ago.

I am so excited about this new path God has taken my wife and I on! I will be talking more about this and what exactly it means to be a "Community Pastor" in the upcoming posts on this blog, but in short, the words of Pastor Linder tonight summed it up perfectly. "We will be the door for the community to the church as well as the door of the church to the community."

Tomorrow morning is our first event! This will kick off our S.O.S. (Saturday Of Service) program which is a program to give opportunity to church members and newcomers to serve and meet the needs in the local community.

Dan Ponjican
Community Pastor, Heavenview UPC
Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail!

We have a BIG ANNOUNCEMENT that we would like to share with our readers - we will write more on this later this evening!

Stay tuned...

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Labels: christie ponjican, dan ponjican

I'm off to District planning meetings today. 8 hours of blissful discussion on the future plans of the North Carolina District Youth Department! I know, I am being a little facetious... actually it is pretty exciting.

There is so much we can do to generate excitement in the young people's lives.

I have to say, North Carolina does have some of the best youth events I've seen. NC Youth Camp is always amazing and there is always a good assortment of local and regional events to really help local student ministries meet the needs of their students.

I really believe in keeping things fresh! I mean I'm no "change-addict" (you know the kind of person that just wants change just for the sake of change) but I think that a regular refreshing of programs and ideas is always smart.

I ask myself quite often, actually, "What can we do to make things better, to make them new and exciting?" I can't stand just maintaining the "status-quo". I think Church should be exciting!
Hopefully we can put together a list of events and programs that really challenge the status-quo and create an atmosphere of change and excitement in student ministries across North Carolina.

The days of just another year, just another camp, just another event are long gone. Look at NAYC, General Conference and other innovative meetings. The bar has been raised repeatedly.

I hope we keep pushing it higher!

Dan Ponjican
Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail!

Labels: church, dan ponjican, District, higher, NAYC, planning

direction in my life these days...

This is Christie, Dan will post again tomorrow.

**

Doors were closing in several areas of her life and important, life-changing decisions loomed overhead.

She and I had spoken recently of the imminent changes with which she would be faced. With two days to give her "Final Answer" - she hoped she made the right choice.

Have you ever been there?

I have.

The "odd sense of direction" comes into play when I feel like I am to be somewhere - or be doing something very specific, and I am not there nor am I doing what I feel I should be doing. (I am speaking of my long-term God-given goal)

I guess I forget that sometimes there are steps I must take in order to get to my final destination. (or to arrive at my "place of calling" - whether place references actual location, or specific ministry, depends on where you are right now, I suppose)

I think of Abraham in Genesis 12. I reference this chapter regularly.

God told Abraham to "Get up and get out of your house so that you can go to the place that I will show you!"

Abraham didn't really know where he was going, at least I don't think that he knew where he was going - (he was trusting God for direction with every step along the way) - I think he knew that change was imminent even if all the details hadn't quite fallen into place as he may have liked or expected.

What did Abraham do? He built altars. He remembered who was leading him.

This blog should serve as a reminder that if you are not where you hoped to be - there's still hope... we are on a journey - keeeeeeeeeeep walking! (one of our favorite lines from An American Tale)

I feel confident that the end is greater than the beginning. You WILL arrive!

There are steps that we must take that will get us to the place that our heart longs for - that God-given goal will be accomplished... keep walking. Keep building altars.

Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail!

Labels: abraham, altars, christie ponjican, dan ponjican, direction, God

I had a conversation with my uncle Prince Mathiasz (veteran missionary to Sri Lanka) earlier this week. He was still home in Canada with his daughter who just announced her engagement (congratulations Natasha & Jason!!!!) after attending General Conference and some other obligations for FMD. I always look forward to catching up with one of my greatest life-mentors.

Uncle Prince has always been an influence in my life as far back as I can remember. I still recall the days as a little boy sitting in my parents living room in Wayne, NJ listening to his mind-blowing stories from his previous term in the mission field while he was on deputation. I later served under him as an AIMer with my wife in 2002. I can honestly say that I wouldn't be where I am today in the ministry if it wasn't for his influence in my life... no where near where I am!

In my conversation with him on Sunday night he told me an amazing testimony from this year in Sri Lanka. The churches in Sri Lanka have been suffering from religious persecution for years now. It's actually a bit humorous to hear how Bro. Mathiasz deals with it! I guess after 25 years of dealing with the same attacks from hell, you learn a thing or two! A church in a small village in Sri Lanka was in process of building a church facility. The area where the believers were building was dominated by Hindus and the local Hindu leadership. It is not uncommon for the churches in these types of situations to wake up to their churches being vandalized, burned and even destroyed by these opposing groups only to have local governments turn blind eyes to the situations. Bro. Mathiasz has long learned to not put his trust in man!

The pastor of this small village church called Bro. Mathiasz very alarmed by what was happening. He informed him that the local Hindus were opposing the building progress of this new Apostolic church by building a massive new Hindu temple just a few feet from the UPC church that would dwarf the modest village building we were constructing. Rumors were already floating around the village that it was the intention to build this temple with large bells and loudspeakers to disrupt any attempts at worship services being held at the UPC church.

Bro. Mathiasz' response was very simple. Fear not! He instructed them to go on as normal having church the following Sunday. He told them to conclude their normal service by having the entire church congregation assemble outside the UPC building in-progress, directly in front of what now was a massive foot print of a large foundation for the soon to be Hindu temple. They were to sing a few songs, worship the only TRUE God and then all stretch their hands towards the foundation of the temple and rebuke it in Jesus name!

The pastor obeyed his leader's words and did exactly as he told him. Weeks later the report came in. As part of the national economic development plan of the Sri Lankan government, they had chosen 4 remote village valleys to bring power (electricity) from the central power grid. One of the four villages chosen was non other than our little village with a UPC church building program. Amazingly enough, as the plan outlined, construction required the exact land where the Hindu temple was to be constructed for a large high-tension power line tower. They marked the four corners of the to-be-built tower... they were the exact four corners of the would-be Hindu temple.

Dan Ponjican

Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail!

Monday, Monday... la la la la la la

We had a wonderful weekend! (We hope you did too!)

Rev. Jesse Williams was in Winston-Salem yesterday morning, then in Concord, at Christ Church in the evening.

Dan and I are so impressed with his ministry! He is eighty years of age, and as Rev. Michael Fillmer would say, he is trapped in a thirty year old body. =) Michael Fillmer served Jesse Williams as his Assistant Pastor for well over ten years.

Bro. Williams dedicated Michael and Kelly's newest little boy to the Lord last evening in Concord. We had a wonderful time!

Speaking of Michael Fillmer, he is a Home Missions Pastor in Concord, NC, who we respect highly. He has a million things going on in his life, at any given time - God is doing amazing things through this family and I wanted to highlight them today in my blog.

This is Michael's weekly evotional:

Have you ever had hurt deeper than physical pain? A pain that transcended the body and entered the soul? This weeks evotional deals with God's healing on the inside.
Dvid encouraged himself in the Lord his God (1 Sam 30:6)
Does God Still Heal? I collapsed hard and cried heavily in the middle of my high school hallway because of the intense pain I felt. It was during my junior year, and other students walked by wondering what was wrong. I was wondering, too. There were no broken bones, tumors, or other physical infirmities. The looming pain I felt did not surge through my body but pierced my soul. It created such heaviness that I collapsed beneath its pressure. Less than two years prior, my family experienced the trauma of a divorce that sent my soul down a spiral of despair. The loss and loneliness I felt brought heavy tears to my eyes as I cried myself to sleep each night, and they sapped me of the strength and motivation to make it through each day. Thoughts of suicide crossed by mind, but I still had sense enough to realize it would be a permanent solution to only a season of crisis. I needed healing, and I need it soon. I simply could not continue in the state of mind (and soul) I was in. Jesus had said, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." But I didn't know he had said that, and I needed the healing only He could give. I needed it soon! The following summer, I attended a conference in the Northwest where I surrendered my whole life to Jesus Christ. Though I had attended church before, and had "accepted" Christ before, this was different. I cried hot tears. Not the one's that had brought heaviness before, but these tears brought healing. When I got up and dried my tears, I was a new person, and God had healed me of my depression. If you are suffering from depression or loneliness, I invite you to an experience, not a service. An experience that can heal, restore, renew, and connect you to a God who will be a friend closer than you've ever had. I'd like to introduce you to my friend Jesus - the God who still heals. Pastor Fillmer would love to hear your feedback and what Thoughts of Encouragement has meant to you. Email him at myupcpastor@gmail.com. Click here to subscribe to Thoughts of Encouragement, a weekly Evotional sent each Thursday morning for your encouragement by the Pastor of Christ Church. Matthew 11:28-30 (New Living Translation) Then Jesus said, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light." The Eleventh Commandment by Andy Smith As a teen, Smith lost both of his parents within 19 days. He didn't realize the anger he would suppress in reaction to those losses and the deprivation it would induce. Despite a stellar start at the U.S. Naval Academy, God had other plans for Smith; after giving him great insight into the realities of the spiritual and psychological scars life inflicts upon us God led him into the counseling ministry. Smith shares God's healing plan for each of us by using personal examples and scriptural insights. A perfect book for freeing yourself from the oppression of past hurts to become who God has dreamed you to become. (Learn more) Our Price: $13.99
Pastor Fillmer and his family founded Christ Church, which is a New Testament Christian church that endeavors to replicate the church modeled by the Apostles in the Book of Acts. You are invited to check it out and be our guest. Click here for our current meeting time and location. One of the ways Pastor Fillmer and Christ Church minister to families and individuals is through personal Home Bible Studies. There is absolutely no obligation, and people are encouraged by our times together. If it's something you're interested in, click here for more information.
PO Box 7017 Concord, NC 28027 home/office: 704-792-1240 www.christchurchupc.org

Go ahead! You know you wanna! Subscribe so you can receive this piece of weekly encouragement!

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Labels: christie ponjican, dan ponjican, encouragement, michael fillmer, ninetyandnine